The Sherman probe’s lone detective
Police have pursued a ‘theory of the case’ for three years, court told
For the past three and a half years, five days a week, Det.Const. Dennis Yim of the Toronto police homicide squad sits at his computer, either at police headquarters or his home due to pandemic restrictions. He starts early in the morning, puts in his shift, repeats the next day, looking through data and documents for a proverbial needle in a haystack.
He’s the lone full-time investigator on the high-profile murders of billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman.
Friday, Yim revealed during a court hearing regarding sealing orders on case documents that Toronto Police have held steadfast to a single “theory of the case” since four months after the murders.
“There is one theory of the case but it is like branches of a tree. There is one main theory of the case but it can branch off into different avenues we have to explore,” said Yim, adding they are “related.”
Where are you in the Sherman investigation? Yim was asked Friday during a court hearing.
“Sometimes I feel like I am playing football blind,” Yim told the Ontario Court of Justice during cross-examination by a Toronto Star reporter, who represented the publication in its application to unseal police search warrant materials.
“I don’t know if I am at the one-yard line, or in the middle of the field. It’s hard to answer that question. Something could happen tomorrow that would change my answer. It’s dynamic and it’s still active. I would have to predict the future to answer that question and I can’t do that.”
Barry, 75, the founder of Apotex, and his wife Honey, 70, were strangled to death in their north Toronto home on Dec. 13, 2017. Their bodies were discovered by a Realtor two days later, situated in a strange tableau in their basement swimming pool room, held in a seated position by belts looped around their necks and tied to a low railing.
Yim has been a detective for 15 years. A few days after the bodies were discovered, he was plucked from general investigative duties at a local police division and seconded to the elite homicide squad. At the time, police strongly considered it to be a double suicide or murder suicide, and it was not ruled a double murder for six weeks. In the early days, dozens of detectives worked the case. For more than two years, it has been Yim working solo under the direction of Det.-Sgt. Brandon Price of the homicide squad. While Price assists him from time to time, Yim told court he is the primary investigator. He said the case is a priority for Toronto police, a force that investigates 70 to 90 murders each year.
The growing Sherman case file is enormous — 180 gigabytes, not to mention four terabytes of video surveillance collected from cameras in the area and on highways and roads. Duties that Yim labels “investigative actions” are multiplying. Six months ago, 746 of these actions had been completed with 115 outstanding. Now, 848 have been completed with 115 still to go and more added each week.
Speaking generally, investigative actions could be anything from reviewing a batch of tips to applying for judicial permission for a search warrant to reviewing the data that comes from a previous court application — cellphone records and banking records are among the information that has been obtained. Not everything is obviously important, and during cross-examination Yim said that of the 637 tips police have received on a dedicated tip line launched in 2019, some have been repeats, some have been from psychics and none have been remarkable.
“Are you familiar with the term, ‘many hands make light work,’ ” Yim was asked during cross-examination, given that there are thousands of officers on the Toronto Police Service.
Yim said he did once ask for help from the force’s intelligence unit, received the assistance, and moved on. “Help would always be good but I think I am doing OK for now,” Yim told the court, presided over by Justice Leslie Pringle, the justice who has authorized all of the search warrants and production orders in the case.
Is this investigation a priority of the Toronto Police? Yim was asked.
“Yes, it is,” Yim responded. During the cross-examination, Yim said that it is possible that one day, should he retire and the case still remain open, another officer might take over. “I don’t anticipate working on this case for the rest of my life.”
This is the sixth time the Toronto Star has appeared in court arguing for documents to be unsealed. There are now 12 “packets” of search warrant material filed in court, all authorized and originally sealed by Pringle. Each packet contains an affidavit setting out the grounds for a search and each one contains summaries of witness interviews, reference to information previously discovered, crime scene photos and other material.
Last December, following arguments by the Star, redacted versions of the first four packets were made public.
Documents revealed through this process have spotlighted potential problems with the Sherman investigation, including the apparent misreading of the crime scene for six weeks.
Yim told court that the eight remaining packets of warrant information, dated between April 2018 and the fall of 2021, must remain sealed because they were created when the investigation had moved from a general probe to a focused probe. Focused, he said, on a “theory” of the case.
He said that in April of 2018, four months after the murders, detectives honed in on what they thought happened. Yim has steadfastly refused to say if they have a suspect or suspects. To reveal the documents would reveal the theory and he said that would hurt the case as it would tip off the person or persons who committed the murders.
The onus in this case is on Crown Attorney Peter Scrutton to prove that what is referred to as the “administration of justice” would be harmed by the release. As the Star has pointed out in its arguments, quoting from the Supreme Court of Canada on whether a sealed file should be made public, it is “a serious danger sought to be avoided that is required, not a substantial benefit or advantage to the administration of justice sought to be obtained.”
In answer to questions in court, Yim revealed there are portions of the eight sealed packets that possibly could be unsealed as it is possible they contain a type of information similar to what was earlier unsealed in the other four packets — portions of new witness statements.
Police have interviewed about 250 witnesses but only about 30 witness summaries have been unsealed; the court allowed those to be unsealed with some redactions of sensitive information. Among them, interviews with the four Sherman children, Sherman friends, staff, and business colleagues. Three previously identified witnesses Yim would not identify recently provided new information to police, he said.
He said the sealed packets also contain various media articles on the case which he agreed were in the public domain.
Yim also told court that police have filed two international requests for information, one last fall and one this past spring. They have sought information in two separate countries, but he will not identify the countries saying that to do so would alert the killer or killers. They did not receive the information they were looking for last fall. He is hopeful for the second request, sent to a country on May 4. A judge in that country has to approve the request there.
Yim said the Sherman investigation is “challenging,” adding, “I just try to go wherever the evidence takes me.”
Justice Pringle will rule on the case in the coming weeks.
From time to time, Toronto Star reporters represent the paper in court, typically to request access to closed court proceedings and sealed documents. In the situation described in the above story, Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan represented the Star in court in its application to unseal police search warrant materials related to the ongoing Barry and Honey Sherman murder investigation.
“Sometimes I feel like I am playing football blind. I don’t know if I am at the one-yard line, or in the middle of the field.”
DET.-CONST. DENNIS YIM WHEN ASKED ABOUT HIS PROGRESS ON THE SHERMAN INVESTIGATION DURING COURT HEARING